Folklore Database · Browse
Berezkin/Duvakin Catalogue of Motifs
English translation, enhancements and additional metadata by Jonathan Fielder-White
Source: Berezkin and Duvakin's Analytical Catalogue · Original catalogue (Russian)
About the catalogue and its sources
Unless otherwise stated, narrative and tradition data comes from Berezkin and Duvakin's Thematic classification and distribution of folklore and mythological motifs by area (Analytical catalogue).
Original Berezkin/Duvakin catalogue (Russian)
The English translation uses AI assistance alongside manual verification. Errors may occur; consult the original source when in doubt.
All motif categories
| Ref | Title | Summary | Traditions ▲ | Narratives |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| K25a4a In K25 family | Rescue from the underwater world (broken chain). | A young woman finds herself in the power of a water creature, and when she comes ashore, she is chained. To free the woman, the chain must be broken. | 8 | 14 |
| K27h In K27 family | Depict a head that is not shown. | The hero must carve an image of the character's head, which he never shows. It usually adorns a wooden bench. | 8 | 17 |
| K27z2f In K27 family | The Biting Doll, ATU 571C. | A poor girl buys a doll (goose) that defecates gold. When the neighbours take the doll, it only dirties their house. They throw it away, and the prince uses it to wipe himself, and it sticks to his backside. No one can help, but the poor girl easily solves the problem. The prince marries her. | 8 | 8 |
| k32g3 In k32 family | What does the perpetrator deserve? . | The villain is asked what punishment he deserves for committing the crime in question. Not knowing that they are talking about him, he decides for himself how he should be executed. | 8 | 13 |
| K38b2 In K38 family | A bird carries away the hero, the hero kills the snake. | A character (almost always a giant bird) brings the hero to its nest, after which the hero accidentally or at the bird's request kills the monster that was devouring the character's children (usually chicks). | 8 | 11 |
| k67i In k67 family | Cows carried in pieces. | The worker is instructed to follow a straight line or overcome the obstacle without breaking it. He kills and cuts up the animals entrusted to him, throws the pieces over the fence or breaks the fence, even though there is a passage nearby. | 8 | 8 |
| K7 | "Like your wife's pubic area." | A man compares a certain object to the genitals of another man's wife. The offended man takes revenge. Usually, a man who climbs a tree to get chicks from a nest compares them to the genitals of the wife or sister of the man waiting below; the latter throws away the ladder. | 8 | 8 |
| K73a2 In K73 family | The child is replaced with a broom. | The ill-wishers of the new mother replace the baby with a broom (they tell the father that his wife has given birth to a broom). | 8 | 12 |
| K73b3 In K73 family | Throw a nut for good luck. | A person who is asked to count the nuts in a barrel (taking them out one by one) accompanies his actions with a revealing story. | 8 | 8 |
| K76g In K76 family | The crab son. | The son or foster son of a married couple – a crab. He marries a princess and turns into a handsome man. | 8 | 11 |
| K80a5 In K80 family | The boar and the fratricides. | Brothers, competing as suitors or heirs, must hunt a boar. The younger brother succeeds. The older brothers kill him and take the boar for themselves. The truth comes out. | 8 | 20 |
| K8aa In K8 family | Jonah: swallowed by a bird. | A huge bird swallows people. The hero kills it, freeing those who have been swallowed, or, if he himself has been swallowed, he manages to get out alive. | 8 | 8 |
| K8b In K8 family | Woman – the soul of the whale. | A raven finds itself in the belly of a whale; the woman inside asks it not to touch a certain organ of the whale (usually the heart) or a burning lamp. The raven breaks the prohibition, the woman disappears, and the whale dies. | 8 | 9 |
| K99a2 In K99 family | The sold dream. 26.29.30.32.33. | One person has a dream, and another buys it and obtains what was predicted in the dream. | 8 | 9 |
| L123 | Traces lead in all directions. | In order to confuse the pursuer, the character leaves traces leading in all directions before running away. | 8 | 8 |
| L125a In L125 family | The werewolf wife suffers from thirst. | The woman with whom the man has come together is a creature of a non-human nature. This becomes clear after she suffers from thirst at night and, finding no water in the house, takes on her true form, turning into a snake, separating her limbs from her torso, etc. | 8 | 8 |
| L133 | Without arms and legs. | The character keeps his limbs separately, connecting them to his body when necessary. | 8 | 6 |
| L15e1 In L15 family | Discarded weapon. | An ageing character and/or one who senses his death approaching instructs his son, a warrior, or his subjects to throw his cold weapon (sword, sabre or axe) into the sea, a lake or a river. Cf. motifs L15E and L15e2. | 8 | 7 |
| L33d In L33 family | The hero defeats the stone monster. | A rolling stone-monster kills people. The hero destroys it. See motif L33. | 8 | 14 |
| L37b2 In L37 family | Overheard conversation: a snake inside a person. | From the conversation of snakes or crows, a person learns the cause of another's illness: a snake has crawled inside him. The person expels the snake and the sick person recovers. | 8 | 6 |
| L37b4 In L37 family | Dog meat has miraculous properties. | From a conversation between spirits or animals, a man learns that the meat (brain, blood) of a neighbouring shepherd's dog has miraculous properties. | 8 | 11 |
| L39a In L39 family | Demon from the underworld. | A supernatural character emerges from the underworld and attacks a man who has climbed a tree. | 8 | 9 |
| L3a In L3 family | She asked for help – a demon came. | Left alone, a woman carelessly calls for someone to help her with the housework; a demon comes and kills the woman or her child. | 8 | 11 |
| L42k In L42 family | The ogre regurgitates the axe. | A demonic character regurgitates an axe (adze) to cut down a tree. | 8 | 17 |
| L5d In L5 family | The head wants to drink. | The rolling head suffers from thirst. See motif L5. | 8 | 9 |
| L5e In L5 family | A decapitated wife pursues her husband. | The decapitated body of a woman pursues her husband, while her head pursues their children. | 8 | 5 |
| L65b5 In L65 family | The hero's dogs at the princess's wedding. | Despite obstacles, the young man's dogs or other animals serving him get to the princess just as she is about to be given away to a deceiver. | 8 | 10 |
| L81a3 In L81 family | Demon with a golden spoon. | A girl sees a demon in a frightening and repulsive form. When he asks her what she said about him (what she saw), the girl replies that she praised his beauty and manners (she saw him in an attractive form). Usually, the girl eventually tells the truth, and the men hiding in ambush kill the enraged demon. | 8 | 14 |
| L88 | The demon comes to life from touch. | A man kills a demon, but when he touches its remains some time later, it comes to life. | 8 | 11 |
| L90c In L90 family | Horns reaching the sky and the earth. | One horn of an animal (deer, ram, bull, goat, wolverine) touches the ground, while the other is raised to the sky or reaches the sky. | 8 | 8 |
| L9g In L9 family | Bluebeard. | A man's hair or beard of an unusual colour is a sign of his demonic nature. | 8 | 8 |
| M106d In M106 family | My name is "Son-in-law". | By saying that his name is "Son-in-law" ("Husband," "Uncle," etc.), the character deceives others. The victims find no sympathy, since as a relative he has the right to behave in this manner. | 8 | 9 |
| m11d In m11 family | Salt from bodily secretions. | The character makes food taste good by adding salt to it. Another character learns that the cook extracts this salt from his own body (it is contained in his bodily secretions). | 8 | 7 |
| M140a In M140 family | The fox ties up its companion. | The fox cunningly ties up the wolf or man and runs away. | 8 | 13 |
| M155 | Covered nakedness of the father. | The father or mother (pretends to) fall asleep naked. One of the children covers him or her, which is a sign of respect. | 8 | 8 |
| M181b In M181 family | How the spider came to live under the roof. | The story of the trickster Spider ends with his transformation into a spider that lives under the roof, in dark corners, etc. | 8 | 12 |
| M204a In M204 family | Did not notice the money, closing his eyes. | Gold is placed in a person's path so that they can take advantage of it. At that moment, the person accidentally closes their eyes and walks past. | 8 | 8 |
| M22a In M22 family | The crane as a watchman. | In a foreign house, in a foreign country, where the hero finds himself, the crane or heron is a watchman who must raise the alarm in case of strangers appearing. | 8 | 12 |
| M29nn In M29 family | Trickster - Earth Squirrel (Xerus inauris) | See the motives in square brackets. | 8 | 10 |
| M38d3 In M38 family | A blurred lump of earth | The character, who is a lump of earth (oatmeal, salt), blurred in the rain or after going to get water. | 8 | 12 |
| M39a3a In M39 family | Oiled soil | fool sees cracked objects (stumps, earth, ice), sympathizes with them and oils them. | 8 | 10 |
| M4 | Careless step | When crossing a pond or descending from a tree, the character (usually despite a warning) steps at a specific animal or part of the animal's body . As a result, it falls into the water and often sinks. | 8 | 18 |
| M53e In M53 family | Allegedly inedible whale | A character (always a raven) kills a whale and points others to imaginary signs that whale meat is not suitable for food. People believe and all the meat goes to the deceiver. | 8 | 12 |
| M56d In M56 family | Fill the vessel with flies | The character promises to fill the vessel with small flying living creatures. He bets with them that they will not be able to fill the vessel. Creatures climb inside, the character closes the lid. Cf. K60B motif. | 8 | 9 |
| M62d In M62 family | A hare in rotten skin | trickster wears rotten skin, pretends to be another animal, and says that the name (i.e. himself) has caused him to get sick. The animals are frightened, they do not dare to take revenge on the trickster for his tricks. See M62C motif. | 8 | 7 |
| M7a1 In M7 family | The luminaries float above the hero | Person gets to a place from which he is unable to come out. Several (more than two) different celestial bodies rise and move near him or above him. He puts attention to them (and asks their help) | 8 | 12 |
| M90a3 In M90 family | The tree grew out of a snake | plant grows from a killed snake or part of a snake's body. | 8 | 10 |
| M92 | Glued lashes | Something red is glued to the character's eyelashes, he thinks it's a fire. | 8 | 9 |
| N37 | Sheltered in the sky | The character is said to sleep under the sky (like a blanket). | 8 | 11 |
| A25 | Getting used to light. | When coming out onto the earth (for the first time or after a global catastrophe) or witnessing the first sunrise, people should not look directly at the light. | 9 | 26 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.